 Today, I want to share a feat that I quite frankly feel is remarkable. I don’t want to sound as if I am bragging, but this is something that might be worth it. I work for a corporately owned restaurant and have for nearly four years. This means that I have an employee file […]
Reasons to be Optimistic
Last night I had a long conversation with my girlfriend after work. It had been a pretty disappointing shift to wrap up a pretty disappointing double to finish off a pretty disappointing weekend. I had a call party not show up. A 17 top I was supposed to split became a 6 top. The 6 […]
Another Five Simple Tricks- Sidework
Five tricks to make your sidework easier. I haven’t written one of these posts in a while. The first and second versions of this recurring feature were very popular. In defeating the case of writer’s block I seem to have shaken today, I decided to write another set of these tricks to make your jobs as […]
Bringing It All Together
In the time that I have been writing this blog, I have provided a large number of tips on sales and describing food. Each of the individual posts provides tools and guidelines to help you sell the food most likely to create happy and returning guests. Used individually these techniques can help you increase the […]
Mixed Greens/ Spring Mix
Salads have becoming much more confusing over the years. We have moved from iceberg and romaine to a variety of weeds, leafs, and greens. Spring mix and mixed greens can be found on even casual restaurant’s menus. Still the components of these mixtures can be a mystery to even the most knowledgeable foodies. Some of […]
The Crazy Waiter Does It Again
One of the primary things I try to accomplish with these blogs is to provide a valuable reference source for the hospitality industry. I try to compile information and make it available to servers, managers, and foodies. So many sources of information are available online, but most are not designed specifically for servers. I try […]
Ahi Tuna & Mako Shark
Many month ago I came up with an idea. Seafood is one of the toughest areas for most servers to learn. Growing up in the Midwest most of the seafood I ate was called “fish” and usually served in “stick” form. Early in my restaurant career I served tilapia and cheap salmon. It wasn’t until […]
What Goes Around
The restaurant industry is a much smaller world than you would think sometimes. There are approximately 2.3 million servers in America at any given time. This is a constantly changing pool though as people get out of the industry or gets promoted within it. Approximately one out of every eighty working Americans is a server. […]
The Truth About Credit Card Theft In Restaurants
As discussed yesterday, Yahoo ran a front-page story from creditcards.com on Friday discussing types of people who you cannot trust with your credit card. The Yahoo headline is pictured above and makes it clear that servers are on the list. While the actual article includes eight groups, the headline very clearly implies that you should […]
We Cannot Be Trusted?
On Friday, I hopped over to Yahoo To check my email. I have used Yahoo as my primary search engine and for my personal email account for as long as I can remember. This time the screen pictured above greeted me. The picture caught my eye. It looked like a guest handing a customer a […]
The Unemployed Martyr
I wrote the following a while back as part of a much bigger project. Â After yielding to the advice of everyone who read it, it ended up on the cutting room floor. Â I picked it up off the floor and decided to share it here. Â This is something most servers struggle with at some point. […]
About The Author
David Hayden was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He took his first serving job in 1996. Since that time, he has worked for over a dozen different restaurant companies. He has held both hourly and salaried positions at independent and corporate restaurants. He has waited on over 100,000 guests and trained hundreds of servers. He has been named "Best Server in Kansas City" the last three years by the local weekly paper.